Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

Fashion is entertainment today and one of the biggest content producers. “Bihor not Dior” is a campaign that takes the content entertainment formats of fashion to support local artisans out of fashion circuit. We gave people, especially fashion people, the most direct & sustainable experience of fashion: access the original product, connect with the artisan, and support the artisan and its tradition.
In the same time we launched an alarm signal towards the big brands that commit cultural appropriation without giving credit to local artisans.

Background

Nobody knows about Bihor, but everybody knows Dior. That’s a shame!
Bihor is a small region in Romania rich in traditions. They created a famous coat that was copied by Dior and sold for 30.000 euro, without mentioning the source of inspiration.
When designers give no credit to their inspiration, there is no return for the poor communities that struggle to keep the traditions. And the traditions die.
Beau Monde, the fashion magazine with 100% Romanian content, wanted to help authenticity survive and make the original designers of the jacket known to the entire world.

Describe the creative idea

Make justice to local traditions and artisans that inspire big names in fashion.
It is all just a little bit of history repeating: we looked back at other recent examples of cultural appropriation in fashion: Stella McCartney used traditional African motives in her Summer/Spring 2018 collection. Louis Vuitton debuted a line of blankets, worn as coats by the people of Besotho, as part of their menswear collection, and many more.
We created Bihor Couture, the first fashion line that fights against cultural appropriation.
It aims to return money to the local communities by selling authentic fashion pieces on an online platform.

Describe the strategy

Take the entertainment fashion formats of big houses and use it to promote the local artisans
We needed to make the original designers known in the entire world and promote the authentic fashion pieces in a unique way, making them appealing to everybody, including a younger target and people who are not familiarized with Romanian traditions.
We built an online shop worldwide accessible.
We promoted the brand with an entertaining content series, featuring our designers. As part of the series, an invitation was launched to Dior, to come to Bihor and design a jacket together with the designers.
We even targeted international celebrities interested in Dior online with customized message from our local creators.
We used the fashion critique format with fashion experts, and invited the local creators from Bihor to talk about Dior’s collection, as the real experts of the jacket.

Describe the execution

Since originality is so prized (and priced) in fashion world, we emphasized the originality: Bihor, not Dior
We launched Bihor Couture with a fashion video content series, featuring the original designers from Bihor, commenting on Dior’s collection, the same one where the jacket from Bihor was included.
The series was highly entertaining, with juicy comments from our local creators, and it could be watched on Facebook and Youtube.
We launched print ads with our creators and even made an appearance at Paris Fashion Week, where social media vultures took picture of our designers and influencers wearing the Bihor couture pieces.

List the results

We put Bihor on fashion map
The campaign made a huge impact, with people storming the website and placing hundreds of orders for traditional clothes. Presently, more craftsmen are being brought into the platform, to work on all the orders that keep on coming.
With an initial investment of 7.000 euro, the campaign gained 1.4 million euro in earned media which means a Return On Investment of almost 200%.
Pre-orders were made to cover the work for the next 4,5 years. Beau Monde also raised money to fund the only craftsmen school in Bihor, to attract more young people that can learn the craft and it further in the future. So the tradition lives on.